Publications & Testimony

Update: On May 13, 2025, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed HB 123 into law, which goes into effect immediately. On March 31, 2025, the Georgia Senate, in a 53 – 1 vote, passed HB 123, sending the bill to Governor Brian Kemp’s desk to be signed. HB 123 provides pretrial hearings for capital defendants to raise intellectual disability claims and would lower the standard of proof for those claims from “beyond a reasonable doubt” to a “preponderance of evidence,” in line with the other 26 states…

On March 24, 2025, Iwao Hakamada was awarded just over $217 million yen ($1.4 million) in compensation after spending 46 years wrongfully incarcerated on Japan’s death row. According to Mr. Hakamada’s legal representative, Hideyo Ogawa, this award marks the “highest” compensation ever provided for a wrongful conviction. Mr. Hakamada, who was exonerated last year, is only the fifth death-sentenced prisoner to receive a retrial in post-World War II Japan, all of which have resulted in…

This month marks the 20^th anniversary of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in Roper v. Simmons. In a series of posts anticipating the April 2025 release of DPI’s report commemorating the 20^th Anniversary of the Roper decision and its implications for emerging adults , we are exploring scientific and legal developments related to juveniles and emerging adults in the death penalty system. Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) refer to potentially traumatic events and circumstances that…

As closing arguments of his trial began in Johnston County, North Carolina, Hasson Bacote watched as Assistant District Attorney Gregory Butler urged the jury to sentence him to death. Mr. Bacote, a Black man, had been convicted of fatally shooting 18-year-old Anthony Surles during a robbery when Mr. Bacote was just 21 years old. Mr. Bacote admitted he had fired a single shot out of a trailer, but said he did not know that he hit anyone. “Hasson Bacote is a thug: cold-blooded and without…

On March 24, 2025, the United States Supreme Court denied review of Areli Escobar’s (pictured) most recent appeal of his murder conviction, which argued for relief based on the fact that the Texas prosecutor had confessed error over the misleading use of inconclusive DNA evidence at trial. In his petition, Mr. Escobar’s legal team said Travis County prosecutors had relied heavily at trial on compromised evidence analyzed by the Austin Police Department’s crime laboratory. Additional DNA testing…

According to records requested by The Tennessean, between 2017 and 2025 the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) spent nearly $600,000 of taxpayer funds obtaining drugs for lethal injection executions. Specific information about the drugs’ sources and origins remains unknown because of the state’s secrecy provisions. During this time period seven executions were carried out: five by electrocution, two by lethal injection. The TDOC initially refused to respond to The Tennessean’s February…

In a three-day span from March 18 to March 20, four men were executed in four different states. Two of the men put to death, in Louisiana and Arizona, were the first executed in their state in years. While the close timing of the executions resulted from independent state-level decisions and individualized legal developments rather than any coordinated national effort, all four executions raised serious constitutional concerns. March 18: Jessie Hoffman (LA) On March 18, Louisiana executed…

In this month’s podcast episode of 12:01 The Death Penalty in Context, DPI’s Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with Sabrina Butler-Smith (pictured), who was wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death at age 17 for causing the death of her nine-month-old son. After two years and nine months on death row, Ms. Butler-Smith’s conviction was overturned. At a second trial, it was determined that her son died from a serious medical condition, polycystic kidney disease, and she was acquitted.

After a series of last-minute legal challenges, culminating with a denial of stay from the U.S. Supreme Court, Louisiana executed Jessie Hoffman on March 18, 2025. Mr. Hoffman’s execution marked both the state’s first execution in 15 years and the state’s first execution using nitrogen gas — only the second state to use this new method. State officials acknowledged that Mr. Hoffman exhibited “convulsive activity” as he inhaled nitrogen gas through a mask while strapped to a gurney, but Louisiana…